Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris is now accepting donations in cryptocurrencies through Coinbase Commerce. This information was dropped by Alesia Haas, the Chief Financial Officer of Coinbase, during a chat with Citigroup.
The announcement instantly caught the crypto community’s attention and so a Coinbase spokesperson added some clarity, explaining that it’s actually Future Forward, Kamala’s super PAC, that has set up shop with Coinbase Commerce.
So, while the Harris campaign itself isn’t directly taking Bitcoin or Ethereum, her associated PAC is now open to these kinds of donations.
The Vice President hasn’t yet given an official comment on this new development, or even said anything about crypto at all. What we do know for sure is that under Joe Biden, Democrats have generally been hostile towards crypto.
But Donald Trump’s embrace seems to have pushed the party into making subtle attempts in order to appeal to crypto voters.
Interestingly, however, Crypto4Harris said Kamala wasn’t aware of any direct crypto acceptance by the campaign, and the official fundraising site still doesn’t show any signs of crypto anywhere.
In June, Future Forward raised $50 million to support Kamala. Still, there seems to be some ambiguity about whether these funds include crypto donations.
Coinbase’s political push
Meanwhile, during her appearance, Alesia reiterated that Coinbase is actively investing in political advocacy. She talked about a “big push on policy” and stressed that now could be the time when the country finally clears up its rules on crypto.
Coinbase is backing political action committees (PACs) like Fairshake that support crypto-friendly candidates. Alesia pointed out that this strategy is paying off, with Fairshake winning in 32 out of the 34 elections it got involved in. On Kamala, Alesia said:
“She has a huge opportunity. We’re cautiously optimistic. She has not rolled out the details yet, but she has made overtures that she would like to drive crypto legislation.”
On the other hand, Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, said the company hasn’t directly donated to any presidential campaigns.
The Trump campaign started accepting crypto donations months ago, which he refers to as building a “crypto army” to fight the Democrats.
What polling data says
Trump’s been making big promises to support the industry. At a crypto conference in Nashville, he even said he’d create a Bitcoin strategic reserve and boost Bitcoin mining to help with energy production.
He’s also launched a new business, World Liberty Financial, focusing on decentralized finance (DeFi). His family, including his sons and daughter-in-law, are pushing this venture hard.
Polls from Fairleigh Dickinson University show a clear link between owning crypto and supporting Trump. For instance, among voters who own cryptocurrency, Trump leads Kamala by 12 points (50% to 38%).
But for those who don’t own any crypto, Kamala is ahead by the same margin (53% to 41%). Looking at the numbers, about 15% of voters say they own crypto or related assets, with a higher percentage among younger people and minorities.
Around 22% of Hispanic voters and 17% of Black voters have owned crypto, compared to 13% of white voters. Republicans are a bit more likely to own crypto (18%) than Democrats (11%).
But the fact that there’s a 24-point difference in support between crypto owners (Trump +12) and non-owners (Harris +12) means Trump is reaching beyond the usual party lines.